Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump took the oath of office to become the 45th president of the United States of America, half a million people descended on the nation’s capital to express their outrage — and demonstrate unity — at the Women’s March on Washington.
Pouring in by plane, train, bus and car — many wearing the pink “pussyhats” knitted for the occasion — regular Americans joined celebrities to send a powerful message supporting women’s rights, and to issue a stark warning to the newly sworn-in president.
People was on the ground in D.C. Saturday, and spoke to numerous...
Pouring in by plane, train, bus and car — many wearing the pink “pussyhats” knitted for the occasion — regular Americans joined celebrities to send a powerful message supporting women’s rights, and to issue a stark warning to the newly sworn-in president.
People was on the ground in D.C. Saturday, and spoke to numerous...
- 1/21/2017
- by kathyehrichdowd
- PEOPLE.com
This is not in the nature of news but of ruminations. I am still thinking of Bingham, and others who have died too soon in our world of independent film...We all are aware of Donald Krim and of Wouter Barendrecht.
Recently our friend and the director of the documentary To Be Heard -- a wonderful testimonial to the winning spirit of disenfranchised youth in Brooklyn -- Deborah Shaffer also lost her wonderful husband, Larry Bogdanow, a New York architect of restaurant interiors. One of his most enticing and intimate restaurants, Wild Blue, opened on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in 1999 and was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. Deborah continued on, finished the film, got it out into the festivals and short listed for an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary this year.
There were also the buyers reps, Richard Glasser and Steve Hirsch who passed from this scene much too early in their lives.
At the risk of becoming morbid, I am using this blog as an open forum, a place to ruminate, not on death, but to take a little more time to remember Bingham whose closeness is affecting me deeply still.
I know people live in circumstances where death and even violent death is all around them (Haiti, Rwanda, Colombia, etc.). I cannot imagine their grief and horror, and I know I am blessed as are all my friends and colleagues to be living in such peaceful circumstances. Still losing friends and family is a painful, if inevitable, process.
Sundance seemed to stop this year with the news of Bingham's death. Anne Thompson also remarked on it; time just took on a whole different aspect. It was difficult sticking to the program though we did the best we could. It seemed to end before it became a festival for me.
My most recent memory and my earliest memory of Bingham are condensed into this moment when I wrote this In Memoriam at Sundance:
Most recently, as I was checking out of my hotel the last day of the Art House Convergence, it was early and most of the participants were going to the panel: Art House Lessons for Today from the Halcyon Days: History Repeats Itself, subtitled Nostalgia for the Bad Old Days, a panel with Jeff Lipsky: October Films co-founder with Bingham, founder and president of the recently established Adopt Films, Art Takes Over, 30-year veteran in the independent film world, internationally known for his expertise in independent film marketing, acquisition and distribution, Richard Abramowitz: President of Abramorama; co-founder of Stratosphere Entertainment; Ira Deutchman of Emerging Pictures and Chair of Columbia University’s Film Program; a founder of Cinecom (and the seed planter of my own Film Finders at that time) who later created Fine Line Features; filmmaker, marketer and distributor of over 150 films since 1975 and Gary Palmucci (whose wife if Nancy Gerstman of Zeitgeist): Vice President of Theatrical Distribution for Kino Lorber, long time Kino regular on the festival circuit with Don Krim who also has passed on much too early.
My roommate at the Convergence, Bernice Baeza of the Lark Theater in Larkspur California, was leaving early and so we were almost alone in the hotel lobby, though Carl Spence of Seattle and Palm Springs Film Festivals was about to go into breakfast, and Richard Abramowitz and someone were in a corner by themselves.
We saw an ambulance draw up and it alarmed us. I realized that whoever had been in the corner was now being strapped to a gurney. I began to run to the ambulance to ask what had happened as I saw Bingham laying there with his feet crossed and a serene smile on his face as if he was saying I'm just going to rest for a while. Richard was by his side and as he saw me become alarmed, he asked me to please be very discrete and not to mention this to anyone. He said Bingham had just fallen and Richard called the ambulance to be sure he was not hurt. I agreed and returned to the lobby and said to Carl, Just forget you saw anything; do not mention this to anyone. He agreed and Bernice and I continued to check out. The woman behind the desk said that he had come to the desk and had forgotten his room number, and then could also not recall his name and his speech was slurred. She said he must have suffered a stroke.
Later Richard kept in touch with me as he stayed on watch. He told me getting Bingham to accept an ambulance had been a typical "Bingham" struggle as Bingham had felt it was unnecessary.
When I first met Bingham he was known as the former manager of the Bleeker Street Theater, a legend to me, a non native New Yorker. I had moved from L.A. to New York and was managing Films Inc/ Pmi's Social Issue Documentary Division, founded by Marge Benton who was also Chairman of the Sundance Institute at the time and active with the Democratic campaign to elect Carter. She felt that such a documentary division would help further the causes she loved and election time was an important time to do so.
All the "guys" in the business were very intimidating at the time: Bingham, John Pierson, Douglas Green, Tom Bernard...and I was struggling to hold my own. Last Berlin, as Bingham and I were talking, he admitted to knowing how intimidating he was and we laughed as I admitted to always wanting to cry after having "conversations" with these guys.
Bingham had grown, he had already had two near-death experiences - one during the London Screenings, when stepping off a curb in London, he was pulled back by Mark Ordesky (my former assistant before going to New Line!) as a car rushed forward towards him (from the "wrong direction"), and the other in an auto acccident in Connecticut. I had written him then about my thoughts in the face of his terrible accident and we became more than mere acquaintances when he thanked me for the note.
Bingham knew the value of life and he lived it fully. His much too early death should remind us all to be mindful of how we are living. I myself almost did not want to take the time to write this; the pressure of working at Sundance was very strong and it would have been easier to work through, but the thoughts of Bingham and our common histories would not let go of me.
He himself was about to start a whole new chapter in his life at the San Francisco Film Society, already marred by the premature death of its beloved director Graham Leggat. This alone should be a reminder to us all that no matter what our age, there is always a new chapter to begin if we live creatively.
We need to take the time to consider how we live in this world we all share, how we treat others, how we build our lives around what are truly the important issues....family, friends, our community, our city, our nation and our planet...and cinema which we all believe can truly change the world.
Bingham is out there now and he will always be a part of our world in whatever form we human beings take after shuffling off our mortal coil.
Recently our friend and the director of the documentary To Be Heard -- a wonderful testimonial to the winning spirit of disenfranchised youth in Brooklyn -- Deborah Shaffer also lost her wonderful husband, Larry Bogdanow, a New York architect of restaurant interiors. One of his most enticing and intimate restaurants, Wild Blue, opened on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in 1999 and was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. Deborah continued on, finished the film, got it out into the festivals and short listed for an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary this year.
There were also the buyers reps, Richard Glasser and Steve Hirsch who passed from this scene much too early in their lives.
At the risk of becoming morbid, I am using this blog as an open forum, a place to ruminate, not on death, but to take a little more time to remember Bingham whose closeness is affecting me deeply still.
I know people live in circumstances where death and even violent death is all around them (Haiti, Rwanda, Colombia, etc.). I cannot imagine their grief and horror, and I know I am blessed as are all my friends and colleagues to be living in such peaceful circumstances. Still losing friends and family is a painful, if inevitable, process.
Sundance seemed to stop this year with the news of Bingham's death. Anne Thompson also remarked on it; time just took on a whole different aspect. It was difficult sticking to the program though we did the best we could. It seemed to end before it became a festival for me.
My most recent memory and my earliest memory of Bingham are condensed into this moment when I wrote this In Memoriam at Sundance:
Most recently, as I was checking out of my hotel the last day of the Art House Convergence, it was early and most of the participants were going to the panel: Art House Lessons for Today from the Halcyon Days: History Repeats Itself, subtitled Nostalgia for the Bad Old Days, a panel with Jeff Lipsky: October Films co-founder with Bingham, founder and president of the recently established Adopt Films, Art Takes Over, 30-year veteran in the independent film world, internationally known for his expertise in independent film marketing, acquisition and distribution, Richard Abramowitz: President of Abramorama; co-founder of Stratosphere Entertainment; Ira Deutchman of Emerging Pictures and Chair of Columbia University’s Film Program; a founder of Cinecom (and the seed planter of my own Film Finders at that time) who later created Fine Line Features; filmmaker, marketer and distributor of over 150 films since 1975 and Gary Palmucci (whose wife if Nancy Gerstman of Zeitgeist): Vice President of Theatrical Distribution for Kino Lorber, long time Kino regular on the festival circuit with Don Krim who also has passed on much too early.
My roommate at the Convergence, Bernice Baeza of the Lark Theater in Larkspur California, was leaving early and so we were almost alone in the hotel lobby, though Carl Spence of Seattle and Palm Springs Film Festivals was about to go into breakfast, and Richard Abramowitz and someone were in a corner by themselves.
We saw an ambulance draw up and it alarmed us. I realized that whoever had been in the corner was now being strapped to a gurney. I began to run to the ambulance to ask what had happened as I saw Bingham laying there with his feet crossed and a serene smile on his face as if he was saying I'm just going to rest for a while. Richard was by his side and as he saw me become alarmed, he asked me to please be very discrete and not to mention this to anyone. He said Bingham had just fallen and Richard called the ambulance to be sure he was not hurt. I agreed and returned to the lobby and said to Carl, Just forget you saw anything; do not mention this to anyone. He agreed and Bernice and I continued to check out. The woman behind the desk said that he had come to the desk and had forgotten his room number, and then could also not recall his name and his speech was slurred. She said he must have suffered a stroke.
Later Richard kept in touch with me as he stayed on watch. He told me getting Bingham to accept an ambulance had been a typical "Bingham" struggle as Bingham had felt it was unnecessary.
When I first met Bingham he was known as the former manager of the Bleeker Street Theater, a legend to me, a non native New Yorker. I had moved from L.A. to New York and was managing Films Inc/ Pmi's Social Issue Documentary Division, founded by Marge Benton who was also Chairman of the Sundance Institute at the time and active with the Democratic campaign to elect Carter. She felt that such a documentary division would help further the causes she loved and election time was an important time to do so.
All the "guys" in the business were very intimidating at the time: Bingham, John Pierson, Douglas Green, Tom Bernard...and I was struggling to hold my own. Last Berlin, as Bingham and I were talking, he admitted to knowing how intimidating he was and we laughed as I admitted to always wanting to cry after having "conversations" with these guys.
Bingham had grown, he had already had two near-death experiences - one during the London Screenings, when stepping off a curb in London, he was pulled back by Mark Ordesky (my former assistant before going to New Line!) as a car rushed forward towards him (from the "wrong direction"), and the other in an auto acccident in Connecticut. I had written him then about my thoughts in the face of his terrible accident and we became more than mere acquaintances when he thanked me for the note.
Bingham knew the value of life and he lived it fully. His much too early death should remind us all to be mindful of how we are living. I myself almost did not want to take the time to write this; the pressure of working at Sundance was very strong and it would have been easier to work through, but the thoughts of Bingham and our common histories would not let go of me.
He himself was about to start a whole new chapter in his life at the San Francisco Film Society, already marred by the premature death of its beloved director Graham Leggat. This alone should be a reminder to us all that no matter what our age, there is always a new chapter to begin if we live creatively.
We need to take the time to consider how we live in this world we all share, how we treat others, how we build our lives around what are truly the important issues....family, friends, our community, our city, our nation and our planet...and cinema which we all believe can truly change the world.
Bingham is out there now and he will always be a part of our world in whatever form we human beings take after shuffling off our mortal coil.
- 1/29/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
If you don’t learn how to write your own life story, someone else will write it for you.Can language change our lives? Three Bronx teens balanced on the edge of hardship use their words to try to answer this question in To Be Heard, a feature documentary directed and produced by Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer, and Amy Sultan. Inspired by three teachers in a radical poetry workshop, teenagers Karina, Pearl and Anthony write their own life stories in which their goals aren’t just dreams.Fresh off a New York ...
- 10/26/2011
- by IDA Editorial Staff
- International Documentary Association
So many movies out and so much to see! Docuweeks is now showing such illuminating docs as Marc Smolowitz's The Power of Two and Directors/Producers: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer, Amy Sultan, Exec Producers Jill and Jim Angelo and Sally Jo Fifer's To Be Heard. So many really good docs and all will be eligible for the Academy Award Oscar for Best Doc and Best Doc Short. A Marine Corps cover-up of one of the worst water contamination incidents in Us history, the glaring reality of the media's objectification of women, as well as portraits of assassinated journalist Anna…...
- 8/22/2011
- Sydney's Buzz
“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.
See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:
Siff 2011 Competition Awards
Siff 2011 Best New Director
Grand Jury Prize
Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)
Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”
Siff 2011 Best Documentary
Grand Jury Prize
Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)
Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.
See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:
Siff 2011 Competition Awards
Siff 2011 Best New Director
Grand Jury Prize
Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)
Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”
Siff 2011 Best Documentary
Grand Jury Prize
Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)
Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.
- 6/12/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.
See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:
Siff 2011 Competition Awards
Siff 2011 Best New Director
Grand Jury Prize
Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)
Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”
Siff 2011 Best Documentary
Grand Jury Prize
Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)
Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.
See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:
Siff 2011 Competition Awards
Siff 2011 Best New Director
Grand Jury Prize
Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)
Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”
Siff 2011 Best Documentary
Grand Jury Prize
Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)
Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.
- 6/12/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
Directed by: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer and Amy Sultan
Featuring: Anthony Pittman, Karina Sanchez, Pearl Quick, Roland Legiardi-Laura and Amy Sultan
“To Be Heard” introduces us to three high-school-age New York City poets battling adolescence and their societal situations, each of whom finds solace and strength in the spoken word taught by a program called Power Writers.
The South Bronx trio of teens — Karina, Anthony and Pearl — take the directors and their cameras into their neighborhoods, and into their loves and fears, resulting in a sharing of four years of their lives with the audience. “To Be Heard” amounts not only to an introduction into an important educational and experiential program, but to an experience in viewing at-risk youth graduate in close-up as they tackle their hopes and dreams, their realities and socio-economic confines.
Sometimes bearing witness...
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
Directed by: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer and Amy Sultan
Featuring: Anthony Pittman, Karina Sanchez, Pearl Quick, Roland Legiardi-Laura and Amy Sultan
“To Be Heard” introduces us to three high-school-age New York City poets battling adolescence and their societal situations, each of whom finds solace and strength in the spoken word taught by a program called Power Writers.
The South Bronx trio of teens — Karina, Anthony and Pearl — take the directors and their cameras into their neighborhoods, and into their loves and fears, resulting in a sharing of four years of their lives with the audience. “To Be Heard” amounts not only to an introduction into an important educational and experiential program, but to an experience in viewing at-risk youth graduate in close-up as they tackle their hopes and dreams, their realities and socio-economic confines.
Sometimes bearing witness...
- 6/12/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
Directed by: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer and Amy Sultan
Featuring: Anthony Pittman, Karina Sanchez, Pearl Quick, Roland Legiardi-Laura and Amy Sultan
“To Be Heard” introduces us to three high-school-age New York City poets battling adolescence and their societal situations, each of whom finds solace and strength in the spoken word taught by a program called Power Writers.
The South Bronx trio of teens — Karina, Anthony and Pearl — take the directors and their cameras into their neighborhoods, and into their loves and fears, resulting in a sharing of four years of their lives with the audience. “To Be Heard” amounts not only to an introduction into an important educational and experiential program, but to an experience in viewing at-risk youth graduate in close-up as they tackle their hopes and dreams, their realities and socio-economic confines.
Sometimes bearing witness...
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
Directed by: Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer and Amy Sultan
Featuring: Anthony Pittman, Karina Sanchez, Pearl Quick, Roland Legiardi-Laura and Amy Sultan
“To Be Heard” introduces us to three high-school-age New York City poets battling adolescence and their societal situations, each of whom finds solace and strength in the spoken word taught by a program called Power Writers.
The South Bronx trio of teens — Karina, Anthony and Pearl — take the directors and their cameras into their neighborhoods, and into their loves and fears, resulting in a sharing of four years of their lives with the audience. “To Be Heard” amounts not only to an introduction into an important educational and experiential program, but to an experience in viewing at-risk youth graduate in close-up as they tackle their hopes and dreams, their realities and socio-economic confines.
Sometimes bearing witness...
- 6/12/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
It’s an ugly day outside, so let’s look ahead to some future rainy day distractions, shall we? Today we’ve got the first posters for: To Be Heard, the beat poetry documentary that’s gaining momentum on the film festival circuit, the inevitable sequel Despicable Me 2, and the Sundance hit comedy Our Idiot Brother.
First up is To Be Heard, a passion project created by Amy Sultan, Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, and Deborah Shaffer. Shot over a four year period, this documentary follows the trials and travails of three teenagers trying to survive their soul-crushing surroundings through the power of spoken word.
[Image courtesy of The Playlist]
Synopsis:
To Be Heard is the story of three teens from the South Bronx whose struggle to change their lives begins when they start to write poetry. As writing and reciting become vehicles for their expressions of love, friendship, frustration, and hope, we watch these three...
First up is To Be Heard, a passion project created by Amy Sultan, Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, and Deborah Shaffer. Shot over a four year period, this documentary follows the trials and travails of three teenagers trying to survive their soul-crushing surroundings through the power of spoken word.
[Image courtesy of The Playlist]
Synopsis:
To Be Heard is the story of three teens from the South Bronx whose struggle to change their lives begins when they start to write poetry. As writing and reciting become vehicles for their expressions of love, friendship, frustration, and hope, we watch these three...
- 6/11/2011
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
One of the most pleasant surprises of the 2010 festival circuit was the beat-poetry verite documentary "To Be Heard," a movie we went into blind and reemerged with intense adoration, calling it "damned genuine" and praising its avoidance in being an overwrought and cliche “inspirational feel good story." Directed by a posse consisting of Amy Sultan, Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, and Deborah Shaffer, while also being produced by Dialogue Pictures, it follows three Bronx high-schoolers (Anthony, Pearl, and Karina) who struggle with their city life. In order to avoid falling into dangerous lifestyles and pessimistic outlooks, they channel their personal…...
- 6/10/2011
- The Playlist
While schooling can often rely on mere regurgitation of information courtesy of an incredibly test-driven environment, there are some teachers out there hoping to break the mold, not just by spicing up the lessons they teach and the homework they assign the students to write, but by actually putting power behind their words. Roland Legiardi-Laura co-founded the Power Writers Program at University Heights High School in the South Bronx, which promotes a strong bond between the students and their mentors through which the teachers encourage the class to express themselves through poetry. The documentary To Be Heard grew from that very program. The film focuses on Anthony, Karina and Pearl,...
- 6/3/2011
- by Perri Nemiroff
- ShockYa
Making its way on the festival circuit before it debuts on PBS this fall, To Be Heard is a spoken word documentary following the lives of three teenagers. Directed by Edwin Martinez, Amy Sultan and Deborah Schaffer, the film will screen at the Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, North Carolina this Saturday.
Synopsis:
To Be Heard is the story of three teens from the South Bronx whose struggle to change their lives begins when they start to write poetry. As writing and reciting become vehicles for their expressions of love, friendship, frustration, and hope, we watch these three youngsters emerge as accomplished self-aware artists, who use their creativity to alter their circumstances.
Below is the trailer. For more information on the film, check out their website Here.
To Be Heard – Trailer from Edwin Martinez on Vimeo.
Synopsis:
To Be Heard is the story of three teens from the South Bronx whose struggle to change their lives begins when they start to write poetry. As writing and reciting become vehicles for their expressions of love, friendship, frustration, and hope, we watch these three youngsters emerge as accomplished self-aware artists, who use their creativity to alter their circumstances.
Below is the trailer. For more information on the film, check out their website Here.
To Be Heard – Trailer from Edwin Martinez on Vimeo.
- 4/11/2011
- by Cynthia
- ShadowAndAct
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